Sum & Fall 1999

ROCHESTER HISTORY Edited by Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck City Historinn Vol. LX1 Summer, Fall 1999 No.3 d-4 A Brief Look at the 20”’ Century Through the Lens of a Camera by Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck Subscriptions to the quarterly Rochester History are $8.00 per year by mail. Foreign subscriptions $12.00. $3.00 per copy per back issue. Lincoln Quickprint- OROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY 1998 US ISSN 0035.7413 A Brief Look at the 20th Century Through the Lens of the Camera In Rochester at the turn ofthe 20th century there was little ofthe wild celebration that one might expectfor such LI mile- stone. Newspapers instead looked back on the passing century. The 21st century, however, is the beginning ofu newmillen- nium.Newspapers report apprehension in the corporate and governmental realms wheregreat dependence on computers and electronic communication has developed irreversibly. A look at Rochester’s passing century gives barely a glimpse of the developments in business and manufacture, transportation and communication, education and lifestyles, roles ofwomen and newcomers and changes in the city itself: The history of a century can seldom be written by decades, rather our histories are more often divided by events, trends, periods- they expand and contract- elastic in their importance. Events ofgreat importance in their day become lost through the century until some new event lifts them out to make connections and greater understanding ofour present day. This article makes no attempt to be comprehensive-only to present a picture of where we have come from- how we got to where we are today. Business and Manufacture “In the nineties began the exodus of power from the simple millwheel to the scientific, but ancient turbine,” recalled Professor Ryland Kendrick in the 1940s. The city was untethered from the Genesee River by electricity after nearly a century, though the electricity was generated by waterpower as well. Kendrick noted industry’s resulting freedom to expand: “... Tall chimneys with black smoke were already [by the 1890~1harbingers of a new industrial era in Rochester, which only for a time was limited, as if from habit, to the river’s banks. And beginning in and from the nineties the industries with smoking chimneys began to dot the area of Rochester far and wide, and to create, not beside the river, but along the railways, new nuclei of population 3 ?hr i:r-il. Corm/ iiqwduct car-ried iti Insi booi !,I riw i 919 xtiriul. I l/c ~iiri~li lwd was pwchosai by the city of Rochester umi used os n mbwoy route rurti1 I956 when de&hg ridership forced its closing. A street deck wns built above the bed in 1921 when the old aqueduct became the Broad Street bridge. Tile Erie Canal needed to be enlarged as mule-drawn boats gave way to lnrger diesef- powered ones. The city could not accommodate the widening of the connl 50 it was rerouted south of the city through the Genesee Valley Pork, nmidst loud public protest. The park had been designed as a pastoral setting by famous landscope architect, Frederick Law Olmsted less than two decades prior. The dirty, working canal was a health hazard downtown nnd was viewed ns on intrruion in the pork. With the 1918 construction, the Erie Cam/ become n pm of the New York State Barge Canal System, crossing ntgmde level over the Genesee River, rather than over an aqueduct. and to enlarge the city’s boundary beyond its early lines.” In the early 20th century, the shoe and clothing industry was strong and the seed and nursery industry was on the decline. Many clothing factories began to move up St. Paul Street away from the river, creating a district. Bausch & Lomb and Kodak, both begun in the prior century, were growing. Precision instruments, lithography and other printing businesses were doing well. Rochester continued to be a place that encouraged invention and improvements in many fields such as automobiles, airplanes, photography, gears, machinery and communications apparatus, etc. Retail 4 Susan R. Anthony (right) nr~d lrcr nst~r Mnry in o photograph taken Februnry 6, I905 by G. A. Woodworth. S~mn died the followingyear. Mary died in 1907. Mary did not receive the public ncclaim that her sister achieved through her spenking tours and writings; but like many women of her time, she ndvanced womens rights by personal achievement. She was a public school ten&r nnd thefirst fern&principal of a Rochester city school. While Susan toured the country agitatinXfor woman’s suffqe, Mary also kept house in the fflmily home at 17 Mndison Street. stores were becoming more numerous and as the city grew, better stocked with imported goods. Transportation and Communication Bicycles were such a curiosity when they were first seen on the streets of the city that in 1869 the Union &Advertiser reported the names and addresses of the five owners, remarking that the bicycle would probably never catch on with the general public because a good bicycle with tools and tool bag could cost between $100 and $125. The Roch- ester Herald debated with the Union &Advertiser about whether the bicycle could be practical or was just a fancy toy for the wealthy. But bicycles became the rage of the 1890s and well into the 20th century; not as a form of exercise but as a convenient form of individual travel. Susan 5 The stotw ~fMercrrryjiroced the cityi skyli~~e.forsrve~~tyyenrs brfore it was token down in 1951 to ntnke wqfor the Covmmity War Memorinl. It was designed nnd erected ;,I 1881 by Gwrnsey S. Mitchellfor his brother-i,t- low, tobncco nlnnufocturer Willinm S. Kimboll. Kintbnlli wife suggested o statue to bcnutifi’ the smokestock of the Kimbnll Tobncco Co~tqx~~y ou Court Street nt the Genesee River. Memo-y my hnvr been chosen ns the strbject bccntrse it symbolizes hen/thy trade nrtd, os n .qod, is n guide to the lessforttmote. III I974 Mercury was reesmblisl~ed to the skyline ntop n brick tower specinlly brdlt by Lnwyeri Cooperative P~ddish- ing COI~XWJ~ftodny West Group) /or their brrildin~ across Brood Street from Mcrmry? orr~inol site. This stereo view offers n mreglimpse ofthe stntw before it ws erected. Tlwor@out the 20th century it hns been n symbol of Rochester> Imlthy rc-o-orromynnd brisiness m-en&t,< B. Anthony said it was a liberating invention for women. Bicycle makers were numerous- and quite inventive. “The automobile began to bring in strange people and the motion picture furnished new notions,” noted Frank Goler in quoting Bellamy Partridge’s Country Lawyer. There were numerous wagon and buggy manufacturers and automobile makers listed in the Rochester City Directory in 1900. Stables and liveries were scattered throughout the downtown near train stations and hotels. Hacks (horse- drawn taxis) rolled through the streets carting travelers between stage and hotel or canal or schooner. Buckboards, shays, vis-a-vis and stage coaches filled the busy streets. A few people rode horseback. The stage coach operated until 1911. 6 The transition between horse-drawn wagons and automobiles was gradual over a couple of decades; then again horses were drawn into service when the Great Depression of the 1930s made gasoline, tires and automobiles generally more expensive or unavailable. Many former wagon makers became automobile manufacturers like the James Cunningham & Son Carriage Factory. Following World War II the number of automobiles dramatically increased. Throughout the 1950s people moved to the suburbs to enjoy the open space and the roads to the suburbs were improved. The buses that began to run in the late 1920s had taken much of the subway ridership, so that in 1956, the subway made its last run. With more flexibility in their routes, the buses continue beyond the 20th century. For 75 years the Erie Canal wound its way through Rochester carrying boats heavily laden with market prod- ucts from the mills and outlying farms. There was talk of enlarging the canal yet again; but this time routing it out- side of the city because there was no room downtown to widen its path. Besides, the canal boats were giving up the traditional mule power for the modern diesel engine- perhaps more dependable but no less odorous. In 1905 work was underway to build the canal south of the downtown through the Olmsted designed Genesee Valley Park. The public outcry against the disturbance of the pastoral setting Olmsted had planned led officials to call on Olmsted’s firm, then run by his nephews, to design a compatible set of pedestrian bridges over the canal to make it less intrusive. Nearly a century later, these bridges are still admired. Meanwhile, downtown, the old Erie was drained and the bed was bought by the city for a subway line. The second Erie Canal aqueduct became the foundation of the Broad Street bridge, carrying automobiles and pedestrians on its upper deck constructed in 1921-22 and the subway in the old canal bed below. 8 Women werefirst ndmitted to the Lhtiversity of Rochester in 1900. Without quite enotr$ public monies collected, Sww H. Anthorry md her sister, Mm-y pledged their Cfc imwmce when tllc mivcrsity reqr&d By the 1#OS, fully two decades prior to the enlargement of the Erie Canal into the Barge Canal System, the railroads were taking over much of the former canal freight and passenger service. The pulse of the city’s economy could be taken from the many arteries of rail lines running throughout the city; particularly along the river. The canal continued to carry the heaviest freight, being capable of moving the equivalent of ten railroad cars of goods on one barge.

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